I haven’t gone to Dayton for a number of years (only reason being family
activities the same weekend), but in reading the comments and looking at the
site from space, my first suggestion would be to limit on-site parking (as was
done at Hara) and use asphalt/gravel for the flea market as much as possible.
There’s lots there. Perhaps there could be a deal to lay down some 3/4 clean to
add to lot sizes.
They might need to provide parking shuttles and pick-up for heavy items, but it
shouldn’t be insurmountable.
Supporting the local businesses in Xenia will be a challenge: at the end of the
day, I’m sure most want to get back to their hotel (particularly if it’s the
Crowne Plaza) and the hostility suites ASAP. And offering decent food on-site
is a double-edged sword: you’d get complaints if the food sucked and if it’s
good, why go out?
Having to move on relatively short notice was a challenge, so it shouldn’t be a
surprise it didn’t all work out tickety-boo.
73, kelly, ve4xt
> On May 25, 2017, at 10:05 AM, N2TK, Tony <tony.kaz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> I found the restaurants in downtown Dayton to be quite busy with Hams,
> especially those east of the Crowne Plaza on 5th street. And within walking
> distance to the Crowne. Quite a good selection of cuisine. Is it the
> eateries more towards downtown and Xenia will benefit from the change in
> venues? I do miss Barnsider. Buckhorn Tavern was a big letdown last year.
>
> And yes the food offerings were much better at Xenia then Hara, except for
> Radar's "Homemade" Ice Cream. First time I can ever remember throwing out
> ice cream. It was terrible.
>
> Overall I feel DARA did a wonderful job for the first time at new venue.
>
> 73,
> N2TK, Tony
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> ac0w@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2017 7:07 PM
> To: 'cq-contest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx' <cq-contest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Dayton Hamvention
>
> Overall an excellent job by DARA in getting things functional in a new
> location. As with anything you can always find things that can be improved.
> DARA fixed things they could as they came up while other things will have to
> wait until next year.
> The mud in the flea market, there are some simple solutions to that.
> The mud in the parking area a little more challenging but still possible to
> get a lot of it under control.
> Some of the changes may require investment by the fair board. How much money
> the fair board is willing to invest depends on what type of economic impact
> we have on the area. I mentioned this as XYL and I stopped at a local
> restaurant Saturday afternoon and visited with the manager. We talked about
> the Hamvention a little. He indicated a lot of local business were really
> disappointed in how few hams stopped in their business when the community
> tried to roll out the red carpet for us.
> This particular person use to be manager at some restaurant by Hara and said
> they were always full of hams during Hamvention so he was surprised to
> hardly seen any. I can come up with a couple of reasons for not hitting the
> local restaurants, such as all the good food choices at Hamvention and it
> not being as easy to run out to the local restaurant as it was at Hara.
> Another is the new location my focus was just learning and figuring out how
> to get there.
> Bottom line is next year lets try to leave a few greenbacks with the local
> business as it will make DARA's job easier in getting some changes made they
> may want. I know next year I will do a better job of trying to hit some of
> the local businesses.
> Last comment, all the 600 plus volunteers were great. XYL, myself and many
> of the attendees that I saw tried to thank the volunteers whenever possible.
> Just like to publicly thank the volunteers for everything they did in
> helping making this an enjoyable event and I hope to see many of them again
> next year.
> 73BillAC0W
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2017 08:02:46 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Ron Notarius W3WN
> To: cq-contest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Dayton flea market mud
> Message-ID:
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> The rain, and the resulting issues with mud, were unfortunate and
> disappointing.
>
> But let's keep things in perspective. This was the first time that DARA
> used this venue for Hamvention. It was too much to hope for that everything
> would work out perfectly, and in two aspects -- the traffic on Friday, and
> this -- they didn't.
>
> The traffic issue was resolved. I've learned that the problem was that
> certain officials would not agree to making the main 2 lane road in one way
> for the morning on Friday; that changed on Saturday, alleviating the issue.
>
> The flea market issue won't be so easy to solve. Personally, I think they
> would have been better off putting the spaces, or at least many of them,
> around the track, not in the infield -- that would have permitted vehicles
> to use the track for access, which meant that when the rains came, vehicles
> would be on the hard surface, not chewing up the mud. There are other
> alternatives as well.
>
> It was unfortunate, but I don't believe it's fair to start writing off
> Hamvention in the future because they didn't score a perfect 10 on their
> first year in Xenia.
>
> Now, that said, if DARA doesn't learn from this year and make adjustments,
> I'd have a different opinion next year. Let's give them a chance, first.
>
> 73, ron w3wn
>
> On 05/23/17, Jeff AC0C wrote:
>
> What has historically set Dayton apart from the rest of the big hamfests is
> that monster sized flea market. So the decision of the organizers to put it
> in the center of a dirt horse track on grass seems like a big gamble that
> there would be no serious rain.
> Unfortunately this year they won the prize for a lot of rain on that
> weekend. And that rain turned the race track and everything inside into a
> massive mud mess.
>
> Hope the organizers find some solution to that problem. Because the
> persistent mud makes the flea market a pretty unpleasant experience.
> Makes me wonder how many guys come to Dayton primarily to poke around in the
> market ? and how many will be back if it?s going to be the mud mess it was
> this year.
>
> 73/jeff/ac0c
> www.ac0c.com
> alpha-charlie-zero-charlie
>
> __
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 24 May 2017 09:34:59 -0400
> From: cqtestk4xs@xxxxxxx
> To: cq-contest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Dayton flea market mud
> Message-ID:
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> The flea market issue won't be so easy to solve. Personally, I think they
> would have been better off putting the spaces, or at least many of them,
> around the track, not in the infield -- that would have permitted vehicles
> to use the track for access, which meant that when the rains came, vehicles
> would be on the hard surface, not chewing up the mud. There are other
> alternatives as well.
>
>
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> I talked to several members of the Dayton Club about doing that. I was told
> they can't as the track is used daily by the horses. Sigh!
>
> Bill K4XS
>
>
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